Highland Park Bowl — Attraction in Los Angeles

Solid 3.5 after 4 visits. Was 4.5 on my first visit.

First of all, beautiful restoration. Full stop. It feels like its trying to retain updated without losing its original charm.

As an art project it is thorough and on point, but as a bar it's like a caricature of millennials with wood/iron furniture, Edison bulbs, plaid guys and pin-up girls, and old fashioned drinks (featuring, you guessed it, the Old Fashioned).

With its authentic/distressed decor, expensive upkeep, and location in a gentrifying neighborhood; Highland Park Bowl is the definition of hipster. At times, so is the crowd.

The drinks are all a solid B, but you'd expect better paying the high end of the Highland Park price point. The pizza is quite good. Better and cheaper pizza can be found across the street at Folliero's, and drinks across the street at Greyhound.

The bowling is cool but in limited supply and the price reflects that. There is cheaper bowling in town, but without the ambiance or charm. The bowling definitely feels like a VIP experience, reminiscent of the Spare Room but (barely) cheaper. Patrons sitting in the open second level silently judge all bowling performances. I highly recommend getting a drink in the second level.

Overall, I had fun the four times I visited, but the novelty wore off and I see myself frequenting other HP spots more often.

However, go if you haven't been yet because the restoration really is something. Also, there are a lot of great spots in walking distance that can be strung...

Originally opened in 1927 Highland Park Bowl is Los Angeles‘s longest operating bowling alley. The 1933 Group did a great job with the restoration and inside really looks like prohibition era which truly adds to the scenery and experience. Inside is pretty large with many different areas specializing in different things. Upstairs are the bathrooms, the first room to the right when you enter is the billiards room, if you go straight you will enter the bar and eating area, and if you continue to go forward you’ll find the bowling lanes.

We arrived as a party of 4 for Sunday night bowling at 7PM on Labor Day weekend. Luckily when we arrived, we found a free parking spot in the lot behind HPB and when we entered we were told it would be about 25 minutes for a lane to open up. It ended up being a little bit over 35 minutes, but we had some drinks and a giant pretzel while waiting for our lane. The pretzel was honestly really good and the cheese sauce with it was a real hit. After about 30 minutes, our lane was ready and we headed down. Each lane comes with a couch and an area to put your shoes and bags. We had a great round and finished in about 45 minutes, but you have a full hour.

Overall, it was a really fun experience and I would recommend to anyone searching for a great time. I would not recommend it for kids because there is an open bar and it can get quite lively in the evenings, but it would be a great place to spend some time with a date,...

I love the retro vibe and the fact that the building is almost 100 years old. I highly recommend making reservations as the wait-list can be over an hour wait for a lane. Albeit I will say that making a regular reservation can be difficult. Took me a week, an email, 4 phone calls and a voice mail later to get through to someone (I had tried to leave them a message as advised when I booked through their website but I never heard back from them and forced me to try and keep calling them). It also costs $20 to make a reservation.

There's a parking lot around back, but it gets full really quick. It was full when we got there that we ended up parking on the street (free on Sundays). I booked one hour each for two lanes for a Sunday afternoon and their hourly cost was $35 an hour between 12PM-4PM. Shoe rental was $5 each person, the total cost was about $135 for 6 people.

For the experience and history vibes alone, it's worth coming here at least once, but just know, the lanes are kind of beat up and not polished properly that it doesn't have the smoothest ball run. The balls provided also aren't labeled by weight so you have to guesstimate which ball to use. You also can't input your own info for lane play, you have to let the front desk know and they'll...